On Thursday, Elon Musk’s Twitter suspended a number of prominent journalists and social media pundits (including those from CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and more) who Musk claimed had “doxxed” him, or shared his real-time location. Most reporters and news organizations in question disputed this charge, which in many cases related to the journalists covering Musk’s decision to ban a Twitter account run by a teenager (@ElonJet) who tracked his private jet activity.
As part of CivicScience’s up-to-the-minute breaking news tracking, we polled Americans to gauge their sentiments toward Musk’s latest move. A slight majority of U.S. adults (52%) disapprove of Musk’s decision to suspend journalists in this situation. Like many of his moves thus far as Twitter owner, sentiment cuts sharply against partisan lines; nearly 70% of registered Democrats ‘strongly disapprove’ of his decision, while 61% of Republicans ‘strongly approve.’
Twitter has also begun to limit the reach of Mastodon, flagging many links to the competing social media platform as “potentially harmful.” It has also suspended the official Mastodon Twitter account after it shared a link to the @ElonJet Mastodon account. Compared to the last time CivicScience polled Americans on Mastodon, its name recognition has held steady (around 30%) but is still drastically underwater. It’s also gained some ground with intended users, but still has fewer users who’ve tried and like it than those who don’t like it.
Want to get the latest consumer news insights before anyone else? Book a demo.
